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Report From Montreux: Festival In The Alps

Report From Montreux: Festival In The Alps image Report From Montreux: Festival In The Alps image
Parent Issue
Day
12
Month
August
Year
1976
OCR Text

Report From Montreux: Festival In The Alps

Traveling to a music festival rounded by high, postcard mountains, amidst a quiet Swiss village settled on a clear lake- whew! The annual Montreux Jazz festival certainly is an adventure for everyone involved, including the press, participants, and especially the musicians who play there.

In its tenth year, the Montreux Festival has an national reputation for showcasing top-name performers as well as being the scene of many hot "live" recordings by music greats. The secret of its success undoubtably revolves around the word "promotion." The "Presse," as the Swiss would say, are all present and accounted for. There are special press boxes for the "critics' viewing light," and an act performing there can count on excellent widespread exposure. Record company big-shots are there too, and their ears are wide open.

The entire festival is filmed for television broadcast in Switzerland, and the TV up is also used to provide live closed-circuit coverage throughout the casino where the concerts are held. Tapes of the previous year's performances are played over the system during equipment changes.

Artists who play at Montreux also help to promote the Festival itself through "Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival" records, which provide additional revenue to the Festival organization.

The "main man" behind Montreux is Claude Nobs, who handles production as well as MCing the festivities. The Festival is his brainchild, and he seems to enjoy it more than anyone. He can be seen doing his continuous, non-stop dancing in the wings or at stage-side, and when he announces he speaks in both French and English, his voice a-quiver with excitement over the players to come.

The Festival is programmed in three categories: Folk and Country (two days, June 25-26), Soul and Electric Blues (three days, July 2-4) and Jazz (six days, July 6-11). Concerts were held in the evening at the casino, and there were several  free music presentations at outdoor locations in the afternoons. The first Soul and Electric Blues concert was our introduction to this year's Montreux, and it opened with Franky MilIer's Full House, whose lead singer did a good Joe Cocker imitation in front of a band with a steady even-keel that kind of left me cold.

Odetta serenaded the audience of mixed nationalities  with her brand of soul-folk. Next up was Stuff- a collection of fine New York studio musicians who have played on the scene for years with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and The Pips, James Brown, Hank Crawford, Esther Phillips, Gato Barbieri, etc, etc, etc The members most recently backed Joe Cocker on his last tour of the U.S.: Gordon Edwards on bass, Richard Tee on keyboards, Cornell Dupree and Eric Gale on guitars, and Steve Gadd on drums. Odetta joined in for the encore and the entire casino rocked.

The festival 's tribute to the rock and roll of the 60's was provided by Eric Burdon, whose vocals seem to have mellowed and improved with age. He sang his heart out on a few old hits as well as some Sam Cooke lyrics and toe-tappin' T-Bone Walker tunes. The band had a kind of Chicago blues sound, and, compared to the "wet dream" rock stars of the present, they would have to be rated "good news" for rock and roll.

The theme of the next evening's show was "Rock My Soul" and Luther Allison was just the man to do it right! Everyone's "European Cool" was blown completely as the band got them moving, and few were able to maintain during Luther's performance. Also on the bill were Nina Simone, Al Jarreau, pianists Sammy Price and Eddie Boyd, tenor saxophonist Hal Singerand drummer Doug Hammond, plus The Crusaders, who did sets in both the soul and jazz segments of the fest.

Other highlights during our stay in Montreux included Clark Terry and The New Hampshire Big Band, Weather Report, and an avant-jazz group from Germany called Passport. Also in attendance were Billy Cobham-George Duke-John Scofield-Alphonso Johnson, and John McLaughlin's Shakti.

The biggest thrill for this reviewer was the illustrious Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers. Blakey is just as energetic and exciting as he has been for the last 20 years. His current Messengers include longtime associate Bill Hardman on trumpet, Michael Tucker on piano, Christopher Amberger sitting in for Cameron Brown on bass, and David Schnitter on tenor sax. Schnitter is a pleasant surprise to those who haven't seen Blakey in the last couple of years- he did some fine blowing as well as some interesting vocals and scat singing on "Georgia." Blakey's seven year old son was also on hand to jam on the shakers.

There were some great musical moments in store for those who attended the final days of Montreux '76. Just to mention a few- Sun Ra and his Arkestra, Thad Jones and Mei Lewis, Sarah Vaughan, and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Although we had to leave early, it must be said that the entire Montreux jazz Festival is a trip in itself- and all or part of it well worth taking off, if you can make t out to the fairy-tale land of Switzerland.